


I Will Always Find You.

by fairy_tales_are_real2



Category: Tangled (2010)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Tangled (2010) References, Tangled AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-25
Updated: 2015-11-27
Packaged: 2018-04-17 03:08:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4649961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairy_tales_are_real2/pseuds/fairy_tales_are_real2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU: Flynn arrives at Rapunzel's tower too late, but he'll be damned if he doesn't rescue her, with the help of his friends, and a lot faith he is determined to find her. He will always find her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Too Late.

The thundering of Max’s hooves on the earth roared in Eugene’s ears, despite what he was certain was breakneck speeds, it did not feel as though they were going fast enough.

All sorts of horrible thoughts kept racing through the former theif’s mind as he raced to save Rapunzel. _What if he was too late? What would the witch do to Rapunzel if he didn’t make it to her in time?_ He was too afraid of the answer to presue that line of questioning further.

At long last they reached the tower, leaping from Maximus’ saddle without slowing down, Eugene raced towards the tower as fast as he could go. When he reached the base he cupped his hands around his mouth and called out,

“Rapunzel? Rapunzel, let down your hair!” There was no response to his cries, anxiously he looked to Max hoping that the horse had some clever idea on how to get inside. Unfortunately, the ivory horse looked just as clueless and anxious as Eugene did himself. His heart pounding, Eugene looked around for something to climb the tower with, when he noticed something very odd indeed.

The tower was covered in a thick sheath of climbing vines, obviously due to years of undisturbed growth. Yet it appeared that some of the thick foliage had been torn away and hasitly placed back in one spot. Suspicious, Eugene went to investigate.

The vines came away in his hands revealing a door that had seemed to have been at one time, bricked over. Now the doorway was surrounded by toppled stones and crumbling mortor. There seemed to be not handle or lock to be found on the door, so Eugene threw his weight against it until it gave way with an unpleasint screech.

A flight of stone steps disappered up into the darkness, with no way to light his way, Eugene kept an hand on the wall and forged his way up the stairs one at a time. It was tedious work, grouping blindly though the darkness, as he followed the stairs up with no idea if there was a trap or even a railing to catch him if he fell.

Finally, the steps came to an end and Eugene fumbled for an entrace to the tower, his hands slapping against what felt like the stone, but it shifted in it’s spot as if it were loose. Summoning all his might, Eugene pushed until the stone gave way, and he shoved the loose flag stone aside.

The tower room was in complete shambles, as if there had been a struggle, bowls that had once held fruit had been turned over and a washing basin upset spilling water everywhere. A mirrior lay in shards on the floor, like someone had bumped into it and it had broken. The wardrobe door was left ajar to reveal it was empty and a curtain to what Eugene imagined was Rapunzel’s bedroom was half torn down.

“Rapunzel!” Still there was no response, as he searched the tower in vain for the blonde woman, she was gone. Abducted once again by a woman Eugene suspected wasn’t her mother at all.

At a loss of what to do, Eugene sank down to the ground and burried his face in his hands, Rapunzel was gone and Eugene had no idea where she had been taken too or if he would ever see her again. _I am so sorry Rapunzel, I failed you. I am so, so sorry!_

He felt something tug on his pant leg and looked down to see Pascal looking up at him sadly, no words were needed to know that the chameleon had seen the entire thing. Eugene scooped the lizard up, the creature turning as blue as the man’s vest. Rapunzel would have known what to say at this moment, she wouldn’t have given up either. She would be rushing out of here on her way to The Snuggly Duckling to gather up the thugs if she was in Eugene’s place.

_That was it!_

“Max!” Eugene yelled as he tucked Pascal into his pocket and rushed down the stairs as quickly as he could, “come on! We’re going to go save Rapunzel!” The horse gave the man an iqusitive look, “Trust me I have a plan, to The Snuggly Duckling!”

 

xxx

 

Returning to the tower had been strange, tucked under Mother’s arm, Rapunzel allowed herself to be led into the glen. The world seemed a darker, much more gloomy place now that Eugene’s betryal weighed heavy on her heart.

Mother didn’t say a word, just led Rapunzel to the side of the tower and pushed aside the ivy to reveal a door Rapunzel had never seen before. “Go on, Flower, I’ll be right behind you,” Mother said holding the lantern aloft to light their way.

Numbly, Rapunzel trekked up the steps that followed the curve of the tower’s wall for what seemed forever. At last they stepped through the opening at the top and stepped into their tower home.

Mother replaced the flagstone and the opening was sealed up as if it had never been, it now made sense how Mother had left the tower when Rapunzel’s hair had been too short to lower her to the ground. But the blonde didn’t comment, instead letting Mother shepard her up to her bedroom where she proceeded to silently undo the magnificent braid Rapunzel’s hair was in, picking out the flower’s one by one.

“There. It never happened!” Mother said in an almost chipper tone once the last flower had been removed and Rapunzel’s hair was now free flowing once more. “Now, wash up for dinner. I’m making hazelnut soup.”

Rapunzel didn’t respond, just hung her head sadly in response. Mother sighed softly, pausing in the doorway, the curtain held aside. ”I really did try, Rapunzel. I tried to warn you what was out there. The world is dark and selfish and cruel. If it finds even the slightest ray of sunshine, it destroys it.” Without another word, Mother left her alone to go fix the meal she’d promised.

Left alone with her thoughts Rapunzel looked at the souvenir flag Eugene had bought her. _How could Eugene do this to me?_ Rapunzel flopped back on her bed and gazed up at her ceiling. Yet something seemed wrong, compairing the sunburst on flag she discovered the same sun embedded in her bedroom wall murals. Heart racing the blonde stood and stared at the hundreds of sunbursts decorating her walls. _It all makes sense!_ Rapunzel had often wondered why she didn’t look like mother at all, everything she had learned about Geneology had suggested Rapunzel would look a little like her mother, but when she had asked, Mother had said that she took after her father in the looks department. And then refused to speak of it anymore.

“ _Agh!_ ”Reeling from shock Rapunzel knocked into her dressing table.

“Rapunzel?” Mother was coming up the stairs to see what the comotion was about. “Rapunzel, what’s going on up there?” A short gasp escaped the blonde before she stumbled to the doorway.

“Are you all right?” Mother asked, once upon a time Rapunzel would of thought the concern in her voice genuine.

“I’m the lost princess…” her mind was racing so many thoughts that she couldn’t keep any of them straight.

“Oh, _please speak up_ , Rapunzel. You know how I hate the mumbling!” Mother snapped, Rapunzel looked up at Mother green eyes colder than a winter’s day.

“I am the lost princess! Aren’t I?” She asked anger in her tone, Mother’s face went slack with shock and the color drained from her face, Rapunzel had her answer. “Did I mumble, Mother? Or should I even call you that?”

Mother was quick to recover, just as she always did when Rapunzel got too near the truth.

“Oh Rapunzel, did you even hear yourself? Why would you ask such a ridiculous question?” She said with a belitting timbre and a smile that said ‘silly Rapunzel you’re such a stupid child.’

“It was you! It was all you!” Rapunzel cried out as Mother’s features darkened in a way that Rapunzel knew to mean that she was entering dangerous territory.

“Everything that I did was to protect _you._ ” She said seriously, disgusted, Rapunzel pushed past her.

“ Rapunzel!” “I’ve spent my entire life hiding from people who would use me for my power…”

“ _Rapunzel!_ ”

“… but I should have been hiding… from you!” She rounded on Mother with accusitory eyes.

“Where will you go?” Mother said her voice cold and cruel, “he won’t be there for you.”

“What did you do to him?”

“That criminal, is to be hanged for his crimes.”

Without meaning to Rapunzel let a small gasp of fear escape, “no!”

“Now, Now. It’s all right. Listen to me. Everything is as it should be.” Mother soothed as she reached out to pat Rapunzel’s hair as she’d done so many times before. But before she could, Rapunzel stayed her hand. “No! You were wrong about the world, and you were wrong about me. And I will _never_ let you use my hair again!” Mother struggled to break Rapunzel’s grip, stumbling in her favorite full length mirror, knocking it over and causing it to shatter. Defiantly, Rapunzel turned away from her, only to freeze when she heard a dangerous voice say,

“You want me to be the bad guy? _Fine_. Now I’m the bad guy…” without warning Mother sprung on Rapunzel from behind, struggling to control the girl as she grappled with some iron shackles that she had produced from a hiding place.

As Rapunzel resisted they knocked into the washing baisen spilling the water all over the stone floor. This was distraction enough for Mother to force the manacles onto Rapunzel’s wrists.

“No!” Mother did not reply just chained Rapunzel to the bannister and bustled around the tower. Emptying Rapunzel’s wardrobe of clothes, and packing pervisions as well as gathering her own valueables.

“You stupid girl!’ Mother raged at Rapunzel as she completed her tasks, “why must you be bad, Rapunzel, why can’t you just behave!” Rapunzel noticed Pascal hurrying up to Mother as she unchained her from the bannister and pulled her towards the stairway.

“Pascal, no!” The little chameleon paid her no heed, biting a piece of Mother’s dress in an attempt to stop her. Seeing him Mother kicked him away in disgust, knocking the poor thing out when he hit the wall. Using this little distraction, Rapunzel knocked into some bowls that usually held fruit and they clattered to the floor, one shattering on impact.

“Rapunzel really! Enough already! Stop fighting me!” Mother snapped before dragging Rapunzel down the stairs and away from the tower towards an uncertain future.


	2. The Lost Princess

“Blondie’s in trouble!” Eugene announced as he bust into The Snuggly Duckling. He was not at all surprised to find that Hookhand and the rest of the gang were waiting there after successfully escaping the place themselves.

The tavern had not changed much in the day that had passed since he and Rapunzel had been there; it still reeked of man smell and spilled ale.

Everyone was gathered around the bar celebrating a job well done. Now The Snuggly Duckling gang was staring at Eugene in shock.

“What do you mean she’s in trouble?” asked Hookhand breaking the silence.

“I went to rescue her, and when I arrived she was gone!” Eugene then proceeded to explain everything he knew, leaving out the fact that Rapunzel’s hair could heal the sick and injured; it wasn’t his secret to tell. By the time he had finished the group of thugs and ruffians was enraptured by his tale.

“Now I need your help to find her! Eugene cried, “I can’t bare to think what that witch would do to her if Rapunzel was left to rot with her.”

“So let me get this straight,” said Shorty, who was a little more sober than usual. “This lady kidnapped, Blondie as a baby and didn’t ransom her? That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! Blondie would fetch a great sum at ransom!”

“Excuse me, what are you talking about? “

The other thugs were sharing looks,

Yyou don’t know?” Hookhand asked unsure, on how to proceed.

“Know what?” Eugene asked annoyed, more looks were shared amongst the criminals. “ _Guys!_ ”

“We were in the process of escaping the palace,” began Hookhand, “when Attila noticed that mural of The Lost Princess?” He paused to see if Eugene would catch on.

“Yeah so?”

“Well, Blondie looks an awful lot like The Lost Princess…”

“And she has the same birthday!” Chimed in Shorty, Eugene’s eyes widened in understanding.

“That’s _impossible_ ,” but was it? Rapunzel did share the same birthday with the princess; they even had the same golden hair and enchanting green eyes!

“Oh my God… she’s The Lost Princess!” most of the thugs rolled their eyes,

“We thought you knew!”

“Of course I didn’t know!” Eugene replied, “I mean, she’s just… she never acted like a princess!”

“That doesn’t matter now!” Cried Hookhand, calling order to the chaos, “how are we going to save her?”

“Right!” Eugene said as he began to pace the width of the room in thought, as ruffians cleared out to give him room to think.

“It’s just the two of them, presumably on foot, so they couldn’t have gotten very far… I say we split up and search for them!”

“But what about the guards?” Asked one of the thugs, which caused Eugene to curse himself under his breath for not thinking of that particular obstacle.

“Avoid them if you can, time is of the essence gentlemen and we have no idea what that woman is capable of when it comes to Blondie!” Everyone nodded in agreement and formed parties of six or seven before spilling out of the tavern in search of their princes.

Eugene mounted Max and watched them go, with any luck one of them would find her and this whole mess would be over before it began.

Max nickered, inquiring were he was to go next, picking up the reins, Eugene pointed him towards the well beaten road and with a tap of his heels sped off in search of the girl with the golden hair.

 

xxx

 

It was slow going as Rapunzel tried to resist being dragged along through the forest.

The manacles that encased her wrists had rubbed her skin raw and stung terribly, but she refused to give up fighting even for a moment.

Mother was still enraged, yanking viciously on the chains that bound Rapunzel and cursing her for being so ill behaved.

“For the last eighteen years I have given you everything!” She snapped, dragging Rapunzel over some uneven terrain, sharp stones stabbing into Rapunzel’s bare feet and making the blonde wince in pain. “I fed you, I clothed you, I put a roof over you head! And this is how you repay me for my kindness?”

Rapunzel felt a stab of guilt in her gut, _she’s not your mother,_ she reminded herself. _Everything she did was so she could use your hair; it was never because she loved you._

A rustling in the undergrowth behind them startled Mother, who yanked at the chains so sharply that Rapunzel was caught off guard and fell to her knees.

Twisting painfully, she strained to see what had startled the woman who despite the fact Rapunzel had fallen was trying to drag her along at a faster pace.

“Come along, Rapunzel we mustn’t let anyone catch us!” Mother said with a sharp yank of the chains forcing Rapunzel to her feet so that she had to stumble along after the woman as to not fall again and suffer being dragged the rest of the way.

Whatever had caused the rustling had lost them and would not be likely to find them again. That didn’t ease Mother’s fears though, she kept on with the hastened pace, never once slowing down to accommodate Rapunzel who was stumbling over potholes and stones in their path.

Mother only ceased when Rapunzel’s hair caught on a thorn bush and she had to stop to untangle it so that they could proceed. Never noticing the few browning strands that were left behind on the bush.

Coiling the golden locks around her arm, Mother slung the loop over Rapunzel’s shoulder so that her hair would stay up out of the way and not hinder their journey any farther.

“There. Now come along, Flower we have a long way to go before nightfall.” The pace was slower now and after running to keep up with Mother for so long, Rapunzel was grateful. Even if it meant letting Mother lead her farther away from any hope of rescue without protest.


	3. Finally Feeling.

By the time night had fallen Flynn and The Snuggly Duckling gang had made camp in the forest. Their search for Rapunzel had turned up next to nothing, Except some suspiciously long hairs tangled in a thorn bush, the exact shade of the cut lock that Rapunzel had shown Eugene by their campfire just a few days before.

            Lounging by one of the fires that had sprung up, Eugene examined the gathered strands, which he had tired together with a piece of twine he had found in Maximus' saddlebag. He felt certain that they belonged to Rapunzel, no one he had ever met had hair that long! Pascal crawled out of Eugene's pocket and looked at him with sad eyes. The former thief needed no words to know that the little lizard missed Rapunzel.

            "I miss her too," He said offering his hand for the creature to crawl into. "But we'll get her back, you'll see."

Pascal seemed comforted by Eugene's words and curled up in the man's had to go to sleep.

            Sleep sounded like a good idea right about then, Eugene planned to be up with the dawn to begin searching again for Rapunzel.

            The Lost Princess. He reminded himself, it was still a shock for him to think of her that way. The Lost Princess of Corona was the stuff of legends! Granted her kidnapping had happened eighteen years ago. Eugene had only been two at the time and yet the story of The Lost Princess was more like a faerie story than an event in recent history.

            But it was more than that, Rapunzel was a princess, and he was a thief, princesses did not marry thieves, and that was what was so hard for him. He loved Rapunzel; he loved her brilliant mind, and her large heart. She was the epitome of beauty and goodness, and she had softened the heart of a wanted thief.

            Perhaps that's what a princess was; someone who was good and kind, and who could see the good in even the worst of people. He would find her, and when he did he would do everything in his power to do right by Rapunzel, and become a man that a princess could love.

 

 

xxx

 

Mother had chained Rapunzel to a tree for the night, and had built a small fire to cook their meal, she was still angry; Rapunzel could tell by how vigorously she stirred the food she was cooking. But her yelling had reduced to grumbling now.

            Rapunzel remained quiet as Mother cooked; it was amazing that only a few days ago. Rapunzel was in her tower none the wiser to the truth, she was The Lost Princess, the heir to the kingdom of Corona. The woman muttering over the stew in the pot was not her mother as she had been led to believe for eighteen years. Now, Rapunzel was chained to a tree with no hopes of escape.

            "Dinner is ready!" Mother announced, breaking through Rapunzel's thoughts. Removing the pot from the fire Mother seated herself on the grass near Rapunzel and smiled as if nothing was wrong. "I made hazel nut soup, as promised!" Mother said brightly before lifting the spoon to Rapunzel's lips.

            Defiantly, the blonde kept her mouth shut, she wanted nothing from the dark haired woman. After several failed attempts to feed the stubborn girl, Mother Gothel yanked hard on the girl's hair making Rapunzel cry out and pain, and for the spoon to be shoved unceremoniously into her mouth. After that Rapunzel allowed Gothel to feed her without much of a fight.

            When the meal had ended, Gothel set aside the bowl and sighed, examining how tired her hands were staring to look in the firelight.

"Our trip has made me very tired, Rapunzel." Gothel said as she started to stroke the golden locks and hum the incantation softly like it was a lullaby.

"No!" Rapunzel cried trying to get away from her captor as her hair began to glow. The chains that bound her held her tight, and no matter how she strained against them she was powerless to escape and prevent Gothel from using the magic of her hair.

            With Gothel's youth restored, she checked to see that the chains were secure and bade Rapunzel goodnight, before settling next to the fire to sleep. This left Rapunzel alone with her thoughts once more.

            Leaning up against the tree's trunk, she turned her eyes skyward, watching the stars twinkling between the leaves above her.

            _Mother used to insist that the floating lights were stars._ Rapunzel thought, but they weren't stars at all, they were lanterns! And they were a sign, a sign that the king and queen hadn't given up on her. And if they hadn't given up after eighteen years of waiting, Rapunzel wouldn't either. She would bide her time for now, and then when the moment was right she would escape and return to the palace as fast as she could, and then her and Eugene would...

            She felt a pang in her heart at the thought of Eugene. Where was he now? Sitting in a cell, awaiting the noose most likely, was he thinking of her now? Despite his betrayal Rapunzel found that she couldn't be angry with Eugene for leaving her, no matter how much she wanted to be.

            There had to be a reasonable explanation as to why he had abandoned her, and once she saw him again--if she ever saw him again--she would find out what it was.

            The fire died low and the coolness of the night, chilled Rapunzel to the bone. The little slack in the chain allowed her to move just enough of her hair over herself to act as a blanket. She glanced at Gothel's sleeping form, and wondered how her story had become intertwined with the woman's. What had prompted her abduction? Not money certainly, Gothel would have done away with her by now if it were purely about the money.

            Gothel had always used Rapunzel’s hair to keep herself young. But how had Rapunzel gotten that power? And how had Mother learned of it? There was a piece missing in this story. Rapunzel was determined to figure out what that piece was.

            Her eyes grew heavy with sleep, the journey had worn her out as well, and with the twinkling stars above her Rapunzel closed her eyes and slipped into a dreamless slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long, I've been busy with school and with being ill. Please review!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and please leave a review!


End file.
